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STOCKLAND. STAPL (SGP)

Stockland is one of the largest diversified property groups in Australia. Stockland owns, manages and develops a range of assets including shopping centres, office and industrial assets, residential communities and retirement villages.

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Australian housing is expensive, according to Matthew Quinn, the managing director of the nation’s leading developer, Stockland.

“The average family should be able to afford the average house,” he told a lunch held by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia in Sydney.

They can’t. The average house is $500,000 while the average family can afford $329.000.

“There is something blatantly unfair with that,” he said.

Mr Quinn noted three reasons.

The first is poor planning, so that supply is less than demand.

The second is the high government taxes and levies, which in Sydney can account for 30 per cent of the price of a new home.

“Government has made a conscious decision to tax new people coming into the market rather than spread the load,” he said.

The third is the size of Australian homes, which at 83 square metres per person is the largest in the world.

“The good news is that customers are changing,” he said. “The dinner party conversation has gone from how big my house is to how small is my mortgage.”

Last weekend, in South-East Queensland, Stockland put 11 townhouses up for sale at prices under $205,000. All sold.

“On a cost per square metre, they [Australian homes] are not that expensive,” Mr Quinn said. Construction is more expensive in Shanghai or Beijing.

The group has just downgraded its full-year earnings due to wet weather and a significant drop in demand in February and March. Mr Quinn said another downgrade was highly unlikely. “We have factored in quite poor conditions over the rest of the financial year,” he said.

“In all of my experience, I have not seen such a shift in sentiment.”

Mr Quinn said Stockland was happy to build infrastructure for governments and was already constructing water infrastructure, roads and even planning rail stations.